Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-04-07
CHAPTER VII.
soLOAIoN's Road.

| soLOMoN'S Road.
Outside the cave we halted, feeling rather
foolish.
II am gong pack" said Sir Henry.
"Why?' asked Good.
Because it has struck me that-What we
saw-may be my brother"
This was a new idea, and we re-entered
the cave to put it to the proof. After the
| bright light outside, our eyes, weak as they
| were with staring at the snow, could not for
! awhile pierce the gloom of the cave Pres
emily, however, we grew accustomed to the
J sem-darkness, and advanced on the dead
| form.
Sir Henry knelt down and peered into its
| face.
THANK Cod" he said, with sigh Of re-
lief "it is not my brother"
Then | went and looked. The corpse was
that of tall man in middle life, with aGui-
line features, grizzled hair, and long black
mustache. The skin was perfectly yellow,
and stretched tightly over the bones. Its
clothing with the exception OF what seemed
to be the remains of wooden pair of hose
had been removed, leaving the skeleton-like
frame naked. Round the neck hung yell
low ivory crucifiX The corpse was frozen
perfectly stiff
who on earth can it be?' said [.
Cant you gueSs"' asked Good.
shook my head.
''Why. the old don, Jose ola Silvestra, of
| courSe-who else?"
impossible l gasped; she died three
! hundred years ago."
And what is there to prevent his lasting
for three thousand years in this atmosphere,
/ should like to llnow?" asked Good IF
nj n iS
will keep as fresh as New Zealand mutton
! forever, and Heaven knows it is cold enough
here. The sun never gets in here; no ami
NAL comes here to tear or destroy. No doubt
his slave, of whom he speaks on the map,
took off the clothes and left him. He could
not have buried him alone. Look here" he
went on, STOPPING down and picking up a
queer-shaped bone scraped at the end into a
sharp point, ''here is the 'cleft-bone' that he
used to draw the map with"
We gazed astonished for moment, for
getting our own miseries in this exuaordina-
~ and, as it seemed to u.s. Semi-miraculous
sight.
cay" said Sir Henry, "and here is where
he got his ink FROM" and he pointed to a
small wound OH the dead mans left arm
did ever man see such thing before?"
! There was no longer any doubt about the
matter, which [ confess for my own part
| perfectly appalled, me. There he sat the
dead man, whose directions, written some
ten generations ago, had led us to this spot.
4 There in my own hand was the rude pen
with which he had written them, and there
round his neck was the crucifX his dying
| lips had kissed. Gazing at him my magma
| ton could reconstruct the whole scene, the
| traveller dying of cold and starvation, and
| yet striving to convey the greatsecret he had
discovered to the wOrld-the awful lOnel-
| ness Of his death, of which the evidence sat
| before us. 1t even seemed to me that
could trace in his strongly marked features
a likeness to those of my poor friend Silves-
tire his descendant, who had died twenty
years ago in my arms, but perhaps that was
| fancy. At any rate, there he sat, sad me-
mento of the fate that so often overtakes
those who penetrate into the unknown;
and there probably he will still sit, crowned
with the dread majesty of death, for centu-
| ries yet unborn to Startle the eyes of wand
| erers like ourselves, il any such should ever
/ come again to invade his loneliness. The
| thing OverpoWered rs already nearly done
to death as we were with cold ana hunger
"Let us go,'' said Sir Henry, in low
voice; ''stay, we will give him companion"
| and lifting up the dead body OF the Hotten-
! tot Ventvogel, he PLACED it near that. Of the
old don. Then he stopped down, anu
| jerk broke the rotten string Of the cruclnH
| round his neck, for his fingers were too colo
to attempt to unfasten it. believe that he
still has it. | took the pen, and it is before
Inc as l write-sometmes / sign my name
/ with it,
Then leaving those two, the proud white
man OF past age, and the poor Hettentot,
| to keep their eternal vigil III the midst of the
eternal SHOWS, we crept out OF the cave into
the welcome sunshine and resumed on,
path, wondering in our hearts how many
hours ii would be before we were even as
they are.
/ When we had gone about half mile we
came to the edge of the plateau, for the nip
pie of the mountain did not rise out Of its
exact center, though from the desert side it
seemed to do so. What lay below US we
could not see, for the landscape was wreath
ed IN pillows OF morning mist Presently,
, however, the higher layers of mist cleared a
, little, and revealed some five hundred yards
beneath us, at the end OF a long slope Of
green grass, through which stream was
running. Nor was this all. By the stream,
basking in the morning sun, stood and lay a
group of from ten to fifteen large antelopes
at that distance we could not see what
, they were.
The sight filled US with an unreasoning
{ JOY. There was food in plenty if only we
could get it. The beasts were fully six hun